Art Berke, a lifelong White Sox fan, has worked at the highest levels of the sports industry with Major League Baseball, ABC Television and Sports Illustrated. He grew up in Northwest Indiana, in the shadow of old Comiskey Park, and proudly proclaims 2005 as the best year of his life. Art offers his glass half-full opinions and observations as he lives and dies with the Sox.

Peavy’s Gem: I Never Saw it Coming

I have to admit, I didn’t see it coming. I was just hoping Jake Peavy, in only his second start of the season, could pitch well enough for the Sox to stay in the game against Indians ace Justin Masterton.

Stay in the game? He was the game.

Peavy was dominating last night. He pitched a complete game, three-hit shutout against a potent Tribe offense and made a first-inning Adam Dunn sacrifice fly hold up in the 1-0 victory.

It’s hard to say how much impact this will have on the Sox, now six games under .500 and nine games behind Cleveland. It’s one thing for Peavy to hurl this gem, it’s another for him to stay healthy and become the club stopper. And then there are the myriad other issues.

There’s the inconsistency from the rest of the staff–for example, the winless John Danks, the maddening inconsistency of Edwin Jackson and the up and down mound personality of Gavin Floyd. Will Alex Rios, Gordon Beckham and Juan Pierre turn things around and will Dunn match his power numbers from recent years? And though the bullpen seems to be shaping up with Sergio Santos as the closer, I’m still nervous when I see MattThornton warming up in the bullpen.

I don’t want to diminish Peavy’s spectacular effort, it was a sight to behold. But the truth is that there are still many questions that need to be answered.

Add me to the group of people that wouldn’t have predicted that sort of outing from Peavy on that day. I didn’t think he’d be that dominant for a while (if ever), nor be pitching a complete game for a while (if ever). I’m thrilled that I was wrong wrong wrong.🙂

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